Volvo Ocean :- Promoting Gender Balance

Last week international Woman's day was celebrated around the world, I read a couple interesting news stories which prompted to write this post. The articles helped me reflect on 20 years working in IT for the banking industry and how I have been a part of numerous teams that were and continue to be heavily male biased. When I reflected on the most successfully periods and projects that I have been part of, the high performing outcomes always had a team of relatively equal gender balance. 

Could the same be true in the next addition of the Volvo Ocean Race ?

In a week that saw Wall Street produce a somewhat symbolic statue of a little girl standing up to the charging bull it was great to read an article in the March issue of Yachts & Yachting which highlighted the steps one of the blue ribbon events in our great sport is taking to address gender balance. While Wall Street has a lot to do move from statues to stasis the Volvo Ocean race has revised the rules for the 2017-2018 race creating an enhanced platform for parity.

The race organisers have come up with a system which encourages teams to include more females on their crew. Anyone who follows the race will appreciate how demanding the circumnavigation can be, adding female talent into key positions on the boat should allow varied watch rotations which will help keep the team fresh as they race around the world. With several legs in the last race decided by minutes the extra people power could give a team the advantage they need with out adding excessive weight to the boat.

The possible crew combination are as follows :-

• Seven all male
• Seven male + one or two females
• Five male + five female
• Seven female + one or two male
• Eleven all female

If you estimate the total crew weigh using the UK average weight of 83.6kg for males and 70.2kg for females the teams will have plenty to consider as the plan the make up of their crew. With the reduction of from 8 to 7 for all male crews it is more likely that we will see mixed crews of 8 or 9 which will give those teams a better watch rotation on the longer legs. The big question which will be answered in time is.... Will any teams choose to carry 140kg extra which is the balancing factor for a 7 male and 2 female crew. 

With team SCA not returning for the next adventure it is unlikely at this stage that we will see another all girl crew, I watch with interest to see the final make up and live in hope that we may see and 10 person team of 5 females and 5 males. If it does not happen this year I hope that the Volvo Ocean Race continues to adjust the rules to make this possible. The 200 hundred additional kg's to run with 10 seems a little to much to carry from where I am sitting but you never know.

In the last addition of the race 11 ladies stood on the podium to celebrate a leg victory, with team SCA taking leg 8 by a little over 48 minutes. 

Will we see this bettered in the 2017-2018 addition of the race, with winners coming from varied mixed crews ?

I know I will be watching every update to find out !

Foot Note
I could not write a post on woman in sailing without giving the lovey Lucy a shout out. Team GTR is heavily male biased, Lucy, thanks for being brave enough to give use some balance !

#internationalwomansday #volvooceanrace #genderbalance #womaninsport #sailing #yachting